Court Convicts Three Egyptians Over Regeni Abduction

A court in Rome on Monday convicted three Egyptian security officers in absentia for kidnapping Italian student Giulio Regeni a decade ago, sentencing each officer to 10 years in prison.

The court did not find the men guilty of murder, but the ruling represents a significant moment for Regeni’s family, who sat in silence wearing yellow campaign badges as the verdict was read.

A fourth officer, General Tariq Sabir, won an acquittal after defence attorneys failed to throw out the broader charges.

Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge PhD candidate researching trade unions, vanished in Cairo in January 2016 before authorities discovered his mutilated body on the city’s outskirts.

The trial proceeded after a 2023 Constitutional Court ruling allowed Italian prosecutors to bypass Egyptian state non-cooperation and try foreign officers without serving them official court notices.

Earlier proceedings collapsed in 2021 because prosecutors could not notify the suspects, leading an Italian parliamentary commission to accuse Egypt’s judiciary of acting in an “obstructive and openly hostile manner.”

Investigators maintain that security forces likely mistook Regeni for a foreign spy, torturing him severely before dumping his body.

Although Cairo dropped its own investigation in 2020 and remains unlikely to extradite the officers, the kidnapping convictions threaten to strain diplomatic and economic ties between the two nations.

Italy regards Egypt as a key Middle Eastern partner, but this verdict empowers Rome to formally demand that Cairo pay two million euros ($2.3 million) in damages for state-sponsored offences.